ASIP

Great! Impressive collection of basic facts. As you requested I provide some corrections. 1) Potemkin was in no way a prince. More appropriate title is Count. Khrushev did not give Crimea to Ukraine. This is a typical myth. Soviet parliament did in accordance with Soviet constitution. The process of transfer started in late 1940s by Stalin and took about six years. Reason was purely economical. There is no land link between Russia and Crimea and Russia could not provide effective functionality of Crimea. 2), 3), 4) - correct. 5) 25,000 are not combat troops it's total personnel who are on payroll of Russia Ministry of Defence, This is mostly support staff. Agreement reads including 1987 in marines and naval aviation based on land. The rest of the items seem correct. 9) is not complete. Movement of Russian forces outside their bases must be agreed with Ukrainian authorities and are subject to Ukrainian laws. This is a principal item. This is wrong. Government in Kiev is not self-proclaimed. The new government (ministers) is assigned by the Ukrainian parliament that was democratically elected 7 years ago. The new government in Kiev is recognized by practically all countries (Canada included), UN and NATO. This is only Russia calls the current Ukrainian government "self-proclaimed". Self-proclaimed is a former criminal who calls himself "Prime Minister of Crimea, Commander in Chief of Crimean Armed Forces and Navy". Ukrainian court has already issued an arrest warrant for him, but now he is hiding behind Russia machine guns and grenade throwers. The guy with his thugs deposited legal Crimean government existed before February 26. About the language law. Your interpretation is not correct. No new laws were introduced, rather an awkward language law introduced by Yanukovich to comply with the EU requirement for preservation of minority languages (NOT languages of ethnic minorities). This law was pain in ass for businesses. Use of other languages was not prohibited - it was automatically regulated by a law of 1992. Simultaneously, a decision was taken to develop a better law on the subject. Seeing that this step was used as pretext to raise nationalist wave by Russia, the interim president did not sign implementation of this bill. Yes, it was a tactical mistake of this new government.

Thank you, MG. I am in NS, Canada. I am former yegmann, just lost my password (and no more YEG).

tinydancer, It's ridiculous! 25,000 is total number of personnel on the facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet (BSF) - NOT TROOPS. This number includes mostly support staff, e.g., construction workers, auto mechanics, plumbers, janitors, cooks and even kinder garden teachers (there are three kinder gardens in BSF). RTFM! See Annex 2 to the agreement of May 28, 1997. Only 1,987 combat troops are allowed. Pilots from navy aircraft are included. Russia invaded Ukraine with 6,000 commandos. The permitted number of military vehicles was also exceeded. It was reported in the UN two days ago. But the biggest problem is that Russian troops are not allowed outside their facilities without permission of Ukrainian bodies. When foreign soldiers with weapons move freely on your streets and establish a puppet government, this is an invasion. As to Yanukovich. Yes, he was elected democratically (election frauds apart) in 2010. But for four years he changed constitution illegaly, bankrupted the country, his family grabbed many businesses. He ordered to suppress peaceful protests brutally. Later he ordered to shoot live ammunition on ordinary citizens. Only sheep can tolerate this. This not for you to teach Ukrainian people what is democracy and what is not. And for your knowledge. Yanukovich was not deposited. An agreement for further actions was signed. His personal safety was guaranteed by representatives of EU. Instead he fled and was in hiding for one week, popping up in Russia. Read Ukrainian constitution! There are four cases when president is to be replaced. Yanukovich meets at least two of them. May be you do not know, the current Ukrainian parliament was elected 7 years ago. It is still the same, including all MPs from the Yanukovich party. The parliament is still in charge. Just now Ukraine has an interim president. The presidential election is scheduled for May 25. What a bloody coup are you talking about?!

On Guard for Thee, There was no "Georgian invasion", there was the same old "Russian citizen safety" pretext.

Sorry Wilber, In the essence, Putin is Hitler. Goals (assembling an empire) and methods (using nation's humiliation after a lost war and darkest human instincts) are the same. The Putin's propaganda machine has been compared to Goebbels'. The difference is Hitler was honest, Putin is not. Yes, Putin does not have racial madness. Actually, Putin compares himself to Stalin. This would be more accurate comparison. (All is IMHO, of course).

To dre, There are no "cites" possible. This my personal ("expert" - ha-ha) estimate based on tens of thousand of pieces of information. Which is far more realistic than some ridiculous "analyses" of university professors you may find. For all. Today it has to be admitted that there is no classical invasion of Russia in Crimea. It seems like we are dealing with "just" a breach of international law.

To Wilber, Exactly. More over, the Western Europe has limited options here. Problem is, at what point a bully must be stopped. Parallels with Hitler's actions are striking.

To Argus, That number is very small (order of 1%) in Crimea and is practically zero (in percent) for (the) Eastern Ukraine. Without being able to quote or copy and paste text from posts I cannot maintain a normal discussion. Your last response to TSS is very good. This the principal difference between the tragic situation in former Yugoslavia in 1990s and in (the) Ukraine now. Violence in the Ukraine was between corrupted power on one side and people of all groups of society on the other side. This is not an ethnic or language problem.

In the way I understand words "active" and "participant". He was (is) not just a spectator. I am afraid, we are drifting towards discussing personal information.

[i do not know why I cannot quote] No, I have no relatives in Crimea. What do you want to know about Crimea? No, I do not support Yulia Timoshenko. In my opinion, she belongs to prison. But in the same way as the former president Yanukovich and many, many other top bosses of several previous governments. However, I accept, her trial by Yanukovich was not fair. I support her release, but hope for a trial. I am very suspicious of her. Although, her latest actions, even in prison, were good (IMHO).

Sorry for not mentioning ladies. I live in Canada for many years. I was born and lived in (the) Ukraine for much more years. Of course, I cannot be a reporter. My and my wife's relatives are all living in (the) Ukraine. My 22-year old nephew is an active participant of some events. I keep tracking the situation through Internet. Sure, I cannot know everything, but I think it's still much better than sometimes pure fantasies of some posters. As for my credentials - I do not answer such a question. You ask, I answer, you decide my credential, I do not care. I've participated in this forum for many years under a different user name, just lost my password. There are lots of misunderstanding here, e.g., root causes of the events, legality of the current Ukrainian government, situation in Crimea, history... Actually, I see rare cases when assessment is correct. However, general perception of this crisis among posters here is right. This a fight between the Soviet-style regime and democratic trends in a society.

Gentlemen (I believe, here we have ladies too), Thank you for your moral support of struggle of Ukrainian people to be independent from foreign will. Ukraine won't be partioned. There is no large group of population who want partition. There is no language or culture division problems in (the) modern Ukraine. The political spectrum is wide, of course, but extremists are far from being influential. Unfortunately, corruption in top level of power is a problem. A vast majority of population want free and peaceful coexistence within a single country. The Crimean crisis is caused exclusively by Mr. Putin's personal delusions. I would be glad to answer any of your questions regarding the current situation in (the) Ukraine.

Gentlemen, As a Ukrainian, I see a lot of misunderstanding of the current situation in (the) Ukraine, including this forum. I can answer any question regarding the subject. As for this topic, Obama must force Russia to obey conditions of Budapest Memorandum of 1994. If Putin prevails, you can forget about nuclear proliferation. Every country will have a moral right to possess nuclear weapons. It will be a blow to US credibility. I also believe in US administration sincere support of the right of Ukrainian people to boot a dictator and decide on own destiny.